Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite

Modern Moral Lesson on How Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

History does not repeat because people fail to learn moral lessons. But the old adage of Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, will this one repeats quite often throughout history in so many different ways.

It repeats because power erodes perception.

Caligulaโ€™s reign demonstrates a crucial truth that is often misunderstood: absolute power does not merely corrupt ethicsโ€”it destroys reality testing. Once a ruler is no longer constrained by consequence, contradiction, or accountability, other human beings cease to register as fully real. They become props, symbols, or game pieces in a private psychological theater.

Shared reality becomes unmoored from the common laws, rules, and safeguards we all agree upon to live in a safe and civil society. When some among us can ride through time without accountability… they do in a sense become mad gods unmoored by the shared rules of a civil society.

Caligulaโ€™s cruelty was not random. It was performative. Executions, humiliations, sexual transgressions, and public desecrations were not simply acts of violenceโ€”they were experiments. Each act tested the same question: Will they still obey?

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | Coercive Auction of Stolen Property So Caligula Could Restore the State’s Bankrupted Funds

They did.

Romeโ€™s greatest failure was not Caligulaโ€™s madness, but the systemโ€™s inabilityโ€”or refusalโ€”to extract corruption once it became undeniable. Senators, priests, generals, and bureaucrats recognized the danger. Yet obedience persisted. Even when elite families were targeted, even when norms collapsed, even when fear replaced law, the machinery of empire continued to function.

That is the true warning.

The Modern Parallel to Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Modern civilization does not crown emperors. It manufactures immunity.

Extreme concentrations of wealth and influence now produce a condition structurally similar to imperial absolutism: insulation from consequence, privatized reality, and social systems trained to preserve stability at all costs. Courts, corporations, political parties, media ecosystems, and financial institutions often function less as safeguards than as buffersโ€”absorbing shocks without correcting root corruption.

Recent, well-documented elite exploitation scandals reveal this pattern with disturbing clarity. The details vary, but the structure is consistent:
โ€ข Transgression escalates under conditions of immunity
โ€ข Complicity spreads through silence and shared risk
โ€ข Blackmail becomes a stabilizing force
โ€ข Institutions protect continuity over truth

The issue is not individual depravity alone. History is full of cruel individuals. The danger emerges when systems reward obedience over integrity, and when power is so insulated that even grotesque violations fail to trigger removal.

This is where Caligula becomes contemporary.

Not because modern elites are emperorsโ€”but because the psychology of unchecked power has not changed. Extreme wealth produces boredom. Boredom seeks intensity. Intensity erodes empathy. Empathy loss enables dehumanization. Dehumanization demands silence. Silence becomes loyalty.

Alan Watts warnedโ€”echoing Buddhist psychologyโ€”that the unchecked pursuit of pleasure does not lead to joy, but to the Naraka world: a psychological hell defined not by punishment, but by endless appetite without meaning. Sensation must escalate because nothing satisfies. Others cease to exist except as stimuli.

Caligula reached that place early.

Modern systems risk normalizing it.

The question is no longer whether ruthless rulers will emerge.

The question is whether civilizations can still recognize corruption before obedience replaces humanity.

Briefing Doc: Caligula & How Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

The Principate of Gaius Caligula: Power, Excess, and the Stoic Response

Executive Summary

The reign of Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, famously known as Caligula (r. AD 37โ€“41), represents a pivotal and tumultuous era in the early Roman Empire. Initially greeted with universal jubilation as the son of the beloved general Germanicus, Caligulaโ€™s four-year tenure rapidly transitioned from a “Golden Age” of prosperity to a period defined by extreme self-indulgence, fiscal crisis, and alleged madness. Key themes of his reign include the expansion of unconstrained imperial power, a strained relationship with the Roman Senate, and a move toward divine autocracy.

This briefing document synthesizes historical accounts of Caligulaโ€™s rise and fall, his ambitious construction projects, his controversial provincial policies, and the contemporary philosophical response led by Seneca the Younger. Ultimately, Caligulaโ€™s assassination in AD 41 by the Praetorian Guard marked the end of the first direct male line of the Julii Caesares and served as a catalyst for Senecaโ€™s Stoic meditations on the destructive nature of unrestrained anger and power.

Little Boot -- Caligula
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | Born to the Purple: Origin of Little Boot

I. Early Life and the Rise to Power

Lineage and the “Little Boot”

Born in AD 12 to Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, Gaius was a member of the prestigious Julio-Claudian dynasty, descended from Augustus and Mark Antony.

โ€ข The Mascotte: As a child, he accompanied his father on Germanic campaigns. His mother dressed him in a miniature soldierโ€™s outfit, including heavy army boots (caligae). The troops affectionately nicknamed him “Caligula” (meaning “little boot”), a name he reportedly grew to dislike.

โ€ข Family Tragedy: Following Germanicus’s death in AD 19, his family became embroiled in a bitter feud with Emperor Tiberius. Caligula’s mother and brothers were eventually exiled and died in prison, leaving Caligula as the sole male survivor of his immediate family.

Survival on Capri

In AD 31, Caligula was summoned to Capri to live with the aging, paranoid Tiberius.

โ€ข Dissimulation: To survive, Caligula masked his resentment behind an obsequious manner. Observers noted that there was never “a better slave or a worse master.”

โ€ข Accession: Upon Tiberius’s death in AD 37 (which some rumors suggest Caligula hastened with the help of the Praetorian prefect Macro), Caligula was proclaimed emperor at age 24.

Brief Golden Age Caligula
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | The New Hope (37AD): A Brief Golden Age

II. The Early Reign: The “Golden Age”

New Sun Caligula
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | New Sun Cult and Seven Months of Joy

Caligulaโ€™s first seven months were characterized by widespread popularity and community-spirited reform.

โ€ข Public Generosity: He distributed massive gratitude payments to the Praetorian Guard, city troops, and ordinary citizens.

โ€ข Legal Reforms: He restored the right of popular assemblies to elect magistrates, lifted censorship, and published accounts of public funds.

โ€ข Filial Piety: He interred the ashes of his mother and brothers in the Mausoleum of Augustus and granted extraordinary honors to his sisters, particularly Julia Drusilla.

Turning Point Caligula
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | Turning Point: Sickness and Grief

III. The Transition to Tyranny

Historians, including Philo and Suetonius, point to a serious illness in late AD 37 as a turning point in Caligulaโ€™s character.

Cruelty and Purges

โ€ข Elimination of Rivals: Following his recovery, Caligula ordered the forced suicide of Tiberius Gemellus (his adopted son and heir) and Macro (the prefect who secured his throne).

Caligula
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite| Death of Heirs of Caligula

โ€ข Hostility toward the Senate: He openly humiliated the senatorial class, forcing them to run miles beside his chariot or stripping them of ancestral honors.

Break with Senate Caligula
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | Break with Senate: Transition from Princeps to Autocrate (39 AD)

โ€ข The Incitatus Affair: In a gesture of contempt for the consulship, he reportedly proposed making his favorite racehorse, Incitatus, a consul.

Caligula's horse
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | The Horse and the Bridge & Incitatus the Consul

Claims of Divinity

Caligula sought to transcend the traditional role of princeps to become a living god.

Living God Caligula
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | Living God: Madness or Monarchy

โ€ข Impersonations: He reportedly appeared in public costumed as Hercules, Mercury, Venus, and Apollo.

Caligula Dressed as Gods
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | Caligula Dressed Up as Gods such as Hercules, Mercury, Venus

โ€ข The Imperial Cult: He established a temple to his own genius on the Palatine and attempted to have a colossal statue of himself as Zeus installed in the Temple of Jerusalem, a move that sparked intense Jewish resistance.

Caligula Desecration of Temple
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | Desecration of Jewish Temple

โ€ข Sun-God Imagery: Provincial coinage and inscriptions occasionally hailed him as the “New Sun” (Neos Helios).

New Sun Caligula
| Neos Helios | New SunAbsolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern EliteNeos Helios | New Sun

IV. Public Works and Economic Crisis

Caligulaโ€™s reign was marked by grandiose and often wasteful expenditures that exhausted the state treasury.

Major Construction Projects

ProjectDescription
AqueductsBegan construction of the Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus to meet Rome’s water needs.
Bridge at BaiaeA temporary two-mile floating bridge of ships across the Bay of Baiae, earth-paved for a ceremonial crossing.
Nemi ShipsTwo massive, elaborate floating palaces with marble floors and plumbing.
Vatican ObeliskTransported an Egyptian obelisk on a purpose-built ship using 120,000 modi of lentils as ballast.

Fiscal Desperation and Taxation

By AD 39, the treasury (amassing 2.7 billion sesterces under Tiberius) was depleted. Caligula responded with:

โ€ข New Taxes: Levies on lawsuits, weddings, and a notorious tax on the earnings of prostitutes.

โ€ข Confiscations: Falsely accusing wealthy citizens of treason to seize their estates.

โ€ข Auctions: Forcing nobles to bid exorbitant prices for his sistersโ€™ jewellery and palace furnishings at public auctions.

V. Provincial and Military Affairs

Caligulaโ€™s military record was largely viewed as ignominious by contemporary historians, though modern interpretations are more nuanced.

โ€ข Mauretania: He annexed the client kingdom after executing its ruler, Ptolemy, leading to a local uprising.

โ€ข Britannia: He planned an invasion that famously resulted in his troops being ordered to collect seashells as “spoils of the sea,” though some suggest this was a training exercise or a misunderstanding of the term musculi (siege engines).

Roman Soldiers Collecting Seashells Caligula
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | Roman Soldiers Collecting Seashells

โ€ข Germany: He conducted operations along the Rhine, though ancient sources dismiss these as poorly prepared or fabricated for glory.

VI. The Philosophical Response: Seneca the Younger

The philosopher Seneca witnessed Caligulaโ€™s reign from the Senate and used the experience to inform his Stoic writings, particularly On Anger (De Ira).

Anger as “Madness”

Seneca defined anger as a temporary madness and a “misevaluation” of worthless things. He cited Caligula as the ultimate negative exemplar:

Ira Caligula
Ira — Wrath, rage or fury. A passion as a kind of madness.

โ€ข The Monster: Seneca consistently depicted Caligula as a “cruel tyrant” and a “monster” whose unrestrained wrath endangered the state.

Caligula's Ira vs Seneca's Stoicism
Caligula’s Ira vs Seneca’s Stoicism

โ€ข The Sadistic Host: Seneca recounts Caligula executing a man’s son and immediately inviting the grieving father to dinner, forcing him to act joyfully under threat of death.

Caligula's Cruel dinner
Cruel Dinner Party | Caligula’s Executes Elite’s Son Then Forces Him to Drink Wine and Smile at a Dinner Party the Same Night

โ€ข Envy of Intellect: Caligula reportedly wanted Seneca killed because he envied his oratorical success, dismissing Seneca’s style as “sand without lime.”

Caligula
Caligula Wanted Seneca Dead

Stoic Remedies

Seneca argued that spiritual health requires the complete rejection of anger. He advocated for:

โ€ข Mutual Leniency: A social contract based on the acknowledgment that all humans are fallible.

โ€ข Introspection: Daily reviews of one’s ethical choices to maintain the sovereignty of reason.

VII. Assassination and Aftermath — the Fate of Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

On January 24, AD 41, Caligulaโ€™s reign ended violently.

โ€ข The Conspiracy: A small group of Praetorian tribunes, led by Cassius Chaerea, accosted the Emperor in a narrow corridor beneath the palace. Chaerea was motivated by personal insultsโ€”Caligula often mocked his voice and gave him ribald watchwords like “Priapus.”

Caligula's Death
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite | Caligula was Ambush by His Own Guardsmen

โ€ข The Murder: Caligula was stabbed 30 times. His wife, Caesonia, and daughter, Julia Drusilla, were also murdered shortly thereafter.

Caligula's Death
Caligula Was Stabbed 30 Times

โ€ข Succession: While some senators hoped to restore the Republic, the Praetorian Guard spontaneously chose Caligulaโ€™s uncle, Claudius, as the next emperor.

Claudius after Caligula
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite| Claudius Chosen by Army to Rule

VIII. Key Historical Quotes | Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

โ€ข On Absolute Power: “Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.” (Attributed to Caligula in literary tradition)

โ€ข On the Roman People: “Would the Roman people have but one neck!” (Attributed to Caligula)

โ€ข On Caligula’s Nature: “I am nursing a viper in Romeโ€™s bosom.” (Tiberius, regarding the young Caligula)

โ€ข On Anger: “Your anger is a kind of madness, because you set a high price on worthless things.” (Seneca the Younger, De Ira)

โ€ข On Caligula’s Divinity: “I have existed from the morning of the world, and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night.” (Malcolm McDowellโ€™s cinematic depiction)

Caligula: Political Case Study of How Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite

The Architecture of Absolute Power: A Case Study on the Erosion of Constitutional Norms under Caligula

1. Introduction: The Fragility of the Augustan Principate

The Roman Principate, as architected by Augustus, functioned as a masterclass in political theater. Its foundation rested on the primus inter pares (“first among equals”) modelโ€”a calculated facade designed to wrap absolute autocratic power in the comforting imagery of Republican tradition. By maintaining the illusion that the Senate and the Roman people remained the ultimate repositories of authority, Augustus achieved a durable stability. However, this system contained a fatal structural vulnerability: it relied entirely upon the “personal responsibility and self-restraint” of a single executive rather than fixed legal constraints.

Caligulaโ€™s reign (AD 37โ€“41) was not merely a descent into personal madness; it was a structural stress test that exposed the total collapse of Roman republican checks and balances. When the executive decided to strip away the Augustan mask, the institutional framework proved incapable of resistance. This trajectory toward unconstrained authority was accelerated by the immense political capital of his father, Germanicus; the popular generalโ€™s legacy provided the initial momentum for a transition that would eventually render the Senate obsolete and the military the sole arbiter of the state.

2. The Accession: Consensus as a Tool for Legal Consolidation

The transition of power in AD 37 represented a radical departure from the gradual accumulation of authority seen under Augustus. While previous rulers maintained a show of reluctance, the twenty-five-year-old Gaius was granted the full spectrum of imperial authorityโ€”the lex de imperioโ€”in a single legislative act. This immediate consolidation effectively neutralized the Senateโ€™s ability to negotiate or impose future constraints.

The Mechanics of Early Accession

Legal ActionStated Intent (Public Relations)Structural Impact (Autocratic Shift)
Annulment of Tiberiusโ€™s WillClaimed Tiberius was of unsound mind to name the minor Gemellus as co-heir.Removed the internal dynastic check of a co-heir, consolidating sole authority.
Doubling of Praetorian BonusesA gesture of filial respect to fulfill and exceed Tiberius’s final wishes.Shifted military loyalty from the state to the person of the Emperor.
Immediate Grant of PowersA response to the “consensus of the three orders” (Senate, Equites, People).Stripped the Senate of future leverage by granting absolute power without a probationary period.

The Senateโ€™s ecstatic reception and immediate ratification of these powers were driven by a desperate desire for a “Golden Age” following the reclusive Tiberius. By surrendering their authority so completely in a moment of popular euphoria, the aristocratic class effectively disarmed themselves. This paved the way for administrative reforms that initially suggested a civic renewal but soon pivoted toward unconstrained authority.

3. The Dismantling of Countervailing Powers: Senate and Law

To centralize power, Gaius recognized the need to diminish the Senate as a deliberative body. He pivoted to a strategy of psychological warfare to neutralize the aristocratic class. A primary weapon was the “Weaponization of Memory.” Although he initially made a public show of burning Tiberius’s secret records to signal a restoration of legal security, he later revealed he had preserved the files. He used these archives as a form of ancient “kompromat,” confronting senators with their past servility and the names of the delatores (informers) who had betrayed their peers. This converted the archival state into a psychological weapon, ensuring total senatorial paralysis.

Even the most infamous anecdotes of the reign, such as the supposed promotion of his horse Incitatus to the consulship, must be viewed through a strategic lens. This was not insanity, but a darkly humorous insult intended to ridicule the highest aristocratic ambitions. By suggesting a beast was fit for the office, Gaius signaled that the consulship, and the elite who craved it, were fundamentally meaningless. This systemic humiliation was even applied to his own family; the “Plot of the Three Daggers” involving his sisters Agrippina and Livilla and his brother-in-law Lepidus demonstrated that even the domus Caesaris offered no countervailing safety.

Methods of Senatorial Humiliation:

โ€ข The Archival State: Reviving maiestas (treason) investigations based on “destroyed” records to ensure compliance.

โ€ข Forced Suicides: Systematically removing elder statesmen like Marcus Junius Silanus to eliminate traditionalist voices.

โ€ข Physical Degradation: Requiring consular-rank senators to run for miles alongside the imperial chariot or serve at the imperial table as common slaves.

โ€ข Erasure of Lineage: Stripping members of ancient families of inherited honors to ensure the Emperor remained the sole source of dignity.

This degradation of political status served a pragmatic purpose: it broke the elite’s spirit before Gaius turned toward predatory methods of funding the state.

4. Predatory Fiscal Policy and the Exhaustion of the Treasury

In a centralized system, financial solvency is the bedrock of political stability. Gaius inherited a surplus of 2.7 billion sesterces, but his extravagant spendingโ€”notably on the two-mile floating bridge at Baiaeโ€”precipitated a financial crisis by AD 39. To address the deficit, the Emperor transitioned from a benefactor to a predator, utilizing the legal system for resource extraction.

Mechanisms of State Confiscation:

โ€ข New Tax Impositions: Following the abolition of the ducentesima (0.5% sales tax), Gaius introduced predatory levies on taverns, artisans, weddings, and a notorious tax on prostitutesโ€™ earnings.

โ€ข The Militarization of Revenue: Deploying the Praetorian Guard as tax collectors, a move that fundamentally changed the militaryโ€™s relationship with the civilian population and signaled a shift toward military autocracy.

โ€ข Seizure of Wills: Setting aside the wills of centurions and wealthy citizens who failed to name the Emperor as a primary beneficiary, labeling them “ungrateful.”

โ€ข The Lugdunum Auctions: Gaius personally acted as auctioneer in Gaul. While the first auction (of his sisters’ property) was predatory, the second (of palace furnishings) saw him adopt the persona of a benevolent princeps, using his status to maximize revenue through “voluntary” high bids from the elite.

This unconstrained resource extraction was mirrored in the Emperorโ€™s demand for spiritual authority, positioning himself as the ultimate arbiter of Roman life.

5. The Imperial Cult: Divinity as the Ultimate Autocratic Tool

Gaius recognized a strategic difference between the traditional “veneration of the genius” (the Emperorโ€™s guiding spirit) and the demand for recognition as a living god. By claiming divinity, he sought to place his actions beyond human law and pietas (traditional duty). While scholars debate if his deity impersonationsโ€”Jupiter, Mercury, and Venusโ€”were “theatrical fancy-dress” or “private pantomime,” their impact was consistent: they shattered the traditional religious consensus.

This demand for divinity sparked a major geopolitical crisis in Judaea and Alexandria. The decree to install a statue of himself in the Jerusalem Temple transformed a local religious issue into a “blasphemy” that risked the stability of the grain supply, as Jewish producers threatened to abandon their harvests in protest. Philoโ€™s account of the “Embassy to Gaius” highlights the hostile nature of this court; at the Gardens of Maecenas, the Emperor ignored the delegates’ petitions to inspect buildings and mock their faith, treating serious diplomacy as a farce. Ultimately, these claims of divinity alienated the very security apparatus tasked with his safety.

6. Institutional Failure and the “Assassination Check”

The tragedy of the Roman constitutional erosion was that the system provided no legal “exit ramp” for a failing executive. When impeachment mechanisms are absent, violence becomes a constitutional necessity. On January 24, 41, this structural failure reached its conclusion in the cryptoporticus of the Palatine Hill.

The conspiracy was led by the Praetorian tribune Cassius Chaerea. While historical accounts credit him with noble Republican idealism, his primary motivation was a response to Caligulaโ€™s routine personal insults. By giving Chaerea watchwords like “Venus” or “Priapus” (referring to his voice), the Emperor had systematically sought to emasculate his own security apparatus. This tactical error proved fatal.

Post-Assassination Systemic Failures:

1. Senateโ€™s Futile Restoration: The Senate attempted to restore the Republic, but their lack of a cohesive military plan rendered their deliberations irrelevant.

2. Praetorian Arbitrage: The Guard “spontaneously” discovered Claudius and proclaimed him Emperor, reaffirming that the military was the true arbiter of power.

3. The New Reality: The transition proved that the state was no longer a partnership between the Senate and the Princeps, but a military autocracy.

7. Contemporary Critique: The Insights of Seneca and Philo

The historical narrative of Caligula is shaped by contemporary accounts that used stories of “insanity” as a tool of political culture to explain poor government.

Seneca the Younger, in On Anger (De Ira), utilized Gaius as a “monster” and a “wisdom-less exemplar” to argue that without Stoic self-control, absolute power is a destructive madness. To Seneca, Caligula was the embodiment of the “high cost of unrestrained wrath.”

Philo of Alexandria, in his Embassy to Gaius, documented the farcical nature of the imperial court, portraying a narcissistic ruler who viewed his subjects with “especial suspicion.” Together, these accounts established the “mad emperor” archetype, serving as a warning to future generations about the volatility of centralized authority.

8. Conclusion: Risks of Centralized Authority in Volatile Systems

The transition from Augustus to Caligula demonstrates that without formal institutional checks, the stability of the state is entirely hostage to the psychological health of the executive. When the “self-restraint” of the ruler vanishes, the state itself is placed at risk.

Strategic Takeaways:

1. The Illusion of Restoration: Early “community-spirited” gesturesโ€”such as the abolition of the ducentesimaโ€”can mask the systematic dismantling of legal norms.

2. The Weaponization of Humiliation: Demeaning elite institutions ensures temporary compliance but guarantees long-term conspiracy. Humiliating one’s own security officers with watchwords like “Priapus” is a strategic blunder that invites regicide.

3. The Military as Final Arbiter: Once the Praetorians are used as “forceful” tax collectors, the revenue stream is militarized, and the Guard becomes the master of the state.

Ultimately, the reign of Gaius stands as a testament to the “high cost of unrestrained wrath” and the fragility of a constitution that exists only in the shadow of a single manโ€™s will.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: From Caligula to the Modern Elite, a deep dive.

Caligula: Governance Ethics Whitepaper

The Stoic Advisor: Navigating High-Risk Leadership Through Senecan Ethics

1. The Volatility Landscape: Lessons from the Caligulan Principate

In the theater of executive governance, the transition from a “Golden Age” to institutional collapse can occur with terrifying speed. Our audit of the Caligulan era reveals the “Fiendish Flip”โ€”a catastrophic pivot where a leader moves from perceived benevolence to arbitrary terror. Caligulaโ€™s accession was initially hailed by contemporaries like Philo as a return to fairness and community spirit. However, following his recovery from illness in AD 37, the environment devolved into a nightmare of unpredictable cruelty. For the modern advisor, recognizing this shift is not merely a historical exercise; it is the primary prerequisite for ethical survival. When a leaderโ€™s disposition becomes sadistic and extravagant, the advisor must transition from policy guidance to high-stakes psychological containment.

The specific behavioral triggers of high-risk leadership identify the moment when the “rule of law” is discarded for the “rule of whim.” When the illusion of the leader as primus inter pares (first among equals) fails, rational institutional planning becomes impossible.

Markers of Institutional Instability

โ€ข Financial Excess: The reckless squandering of an inherited fortuneโ€”specifically the 2.7 billion sesterces amassed by Tiberiusโ€”within a single year. This rapid depletion of the treasury necessitates subsequent reliance on the confiscation of private estates and the imposition of petty taxes to fund grandiose, wasteful projects.

โ€ข Contempt for the Elite: The systematic humiliation of institutional stakeholders. This is exemplified by Caligula forcing senior senators to run for miles alongside his chariot while he laughed at them, or threatening to elevate his horse, Incitatus, to the consulship to mock the dignity of the office.

โ€ข The Claim to Divinity: The total abandonment of mortal limits. When a leader demands worship as a living god, dressing as Mercury or Apollo, they terminate any possibility of bilateral negotiation, effectively replacing professional counsel with theological sycophancy.

These markers signal a total collapse of professional boundaries. When a leader views himself as a deity and the law as an inconvenient suggestion, the environment is defined by arbitrary terror rather than governance. Senecaโ€™s career illustrates how an advisor can maintain a moral center and physical safety during such a collapse through calculated distance.

2. The Advisorโ€™s Paradox: Senecaโ€™s Dual Role as Philosopher and Courtier

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger represents the ultimate archetype of the elite advisor operating under threat. Trained by the School of the Sextiiโ€”a rigorous hybrid of Stoicism and Pythagoreanismโ€”Seneca was fundamentally an advocate for reason. However, his survival during the “nightmare of the Caligula years” required him to master the art of the courtier. He narrowly escaped execution when his oratorical brilliance provoked Caligula’s envy, surviving only by projecting an image of such terminal ill health that the emperor assumed nature would soon do the executioner’s work.

Survival in a volatile environment demands that the advisor utilize strategic maneuvers that protect the mission while preserving the self.

Strategic ActionEthical/Survival Outcome
DissimulationAdopting the “no better slave” status while at Capri; masking resentment for the destruction of his family to avoid summary execution.
The Practice of PatienceEnduring eight years of exile on Corsica under Claudius without surrendering to despair, refining philosophy as a tool for endurance.
The Use of ConsolationAuthoring works for Helvia and Polybius to navigate political grief and utilize flattery as a lever for his eventual recall to Rome.
Strategic WithdrawalAttempting to retire in AD 62 and 64 when Neroโ€™s stability failed, recognizing that influence has a terminal expiration date.

Senecaโ€™s leadership reached its zenith during the Quinquennium Neronisโ€”the first five years of Neroโ€™s reign. Partnering with the Praetorian prefect Burrus, Seneca maintained institutional stability by drafting accession speeches that promised a return to legal procedure. However, the Chief Ethicist must recognize that influence is a perishable commodity; the death of Burrus in AD 62 broke Senecaโ€™s power, proving that an advisor requires a tactical partner to survive a leaderโ€™s deteriorating psyche. This loss of external control forces a retreat into internal psychotechnologies.

3. Stoic Psychotechnology: Anger Management and the Sovereignty of Reason

For the high-stakes professional, internal self-control is the only reliable defense against a leaderโ€™s volatility. Senecaโ€™s De Ira (On Anger) serves as a manual for maintaining professional equilibrium, defining anger as “a kind of madness.” Seneca warns that once rage takes control, it is like “jumping off a cliff”; reason is discarded, and the capacity for virtuous action is lost.

To prevent this descent, the advisor must master the concept of “Misevaluation.” Seneca argues that we rage because we overvalue worthless things. He proposes a “Vastness Stratagem” to expand the mental scale, which we distill into a demanding three-step cognitive audit:

1. Isolate the Trigger: Identify the minor incident, such as a perceived insult to dignity or a professional slight.

2. Apply the Vastness Stratagem: Juxtapose the incident against the immeasurably vastโ€”global climate shifts, collapsing stars, or the sweep of centuries.

3. Evaluate Significance: Realize that the “injury” to one’s pride is hollow when viewed from a cosmic distance. The advisor must learn to draw further back and laugh.

This audit must be supported by “nightly reviews”โ€”tranquil, daily meditations on ethical choices. This practice, termed “care of the self” by Foucault, is a mandatory defensive hygiene for the advisor. It creates a “sovereign space” within the mind that an erratic leader cannot touch. By mastering internal governance, the advisor secures the clarity required to attempt external steerage through the strategic application of mercy.

4. Clemency as a Political Lever: The Ethics of Mercy in High-Stakes Governance

In De Clementia (On Clemency), Seneca utilizes flattery as a sophisticated pedagogical trap. Written as immediate damage control following Neroโ€™s murder of his rival Britannicus, the work was designed to halt the cycle of bloodshed that typically follows state-sponsored violence. Clemency is not portrayed as “kindness,” but as a calculated political lever used to avoid the “arbitrary terror” that eventually led to Caligulaโ€™s thirty stab wounds.

The advisor must propose a “Pact of Mutual Leniency” based on three core principles:

1. Universal Fallibility: Accepting that we are “wicked people living among wicked people.”

2. Shared Sin: Recognizing that all are “sinners all, yet all deserving of clemency.”

3. The Social Contract: Understanding that peace is only possible through a mutual agreement to forgive human error.

Senecaโ€™s use of flattery in this context was a pedagogical toolโ€”he praised Nero for virtues the ruler did not yet possess to “trap” him into acting better. By modeling the “Stoic path of virtue,” Seneca attempted to show the ruler a version of himself that was “good, generous, and fair,” hoping the leader would grow into the image provided. However, even the most skilled advisor must prepare for the moment when influence fails.

5. Final Synthesis: The Framework for Ethical Survival

The “Senecan Framework” for professional conduct under risk requires a paradoxical blend of intellectual distance, strategic dissimulation, and rigorous internal inventory. When institutional governance collapses, the only remaining sovereignty is the mind of the advisor.

Professional Conduct Checklist for Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

โ€ข Draw Further Back and Laugh: Utilize the vastness stratagem to ensure that immediate setbacks or insults do not trigger a loss of reason.

โ€ข Prioritize Persistence over Martyrdom: Maintain patience and survival for the sake of the mission. As Seneca noted, “I wanted to avoid the impression that all I could do for loyalty was die.”

โ€ข Maintain the ‘Imago Suae Vitae’: Strive to preserve a consistent moral and ethical profileโ€”the “image of oneโ€™s life”โ€”that remains untouched by the leader’s volatility.

The legacy of Senecaโ€™s deathโ€”the forced suicide in AD 65 where he remained calm, dictated his last words, and died in a warm bathโ€”must be framed as a strategic victory. By maintaining Stoic composure while being suffocated by the steam of the bath, the advisor denied the tyrant the satisfaction of a broken spirit. The enduring value of Stoic self-governance lies here: when institutional governance fails and the “30 stabs” of inevitable betrayal arrive, the advisor remains the master of the only territory that truly matters: the self.

RESOURCES & CITATIONS for Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

โ€ข Wikipedia: Caligula. (Details on the 2.7 billion sesterces from Tiberius, the “Golden Age,” the shift to tyranny, and the assassination).

โ€ข Wikipedia: Seneca the Younger. (Stoic training, role as advisor to Nero, the Quinquennium Neronis, his wealth, and his death).

โ€ข Lit Hub: Did Seneca Write a Treatise on Anger. (Analysis of De Ira, the “vastness stratagem,” the “pact of mutual leniency,” and Foucaultโ€™s “care of the self”).

โ€ข The Little Boot: The Rise and Ruin of Caligula. (Chronology of Caligulaโ€™s life, the “Fiendish Flip,” the senators running by the chariot, and the 30 stabs).

Feature Archetypal Animation Music: Absolute Immunity – Buben — [1] Absolute Immunity – Original Mix    6:19

To listen to Caligula: A Mad Emperor Like Trump, see below:

Ukraine | “Never Again” the World Once Said: But NOW

Perspective from 2026

When I wrote this in 2023, I still believed historyโ€™s warnings might be enough.

I believed the words Never Again still carried moral weight. I believed the memory of fascism, world war, mass death, and the destruction of democratic societies remained close enough to human consciousness to guide us away from the abyss.

From the vantage point of 2026, that belief feels painfully naive.

Ukraine did not merely become a test of military endurance. It became a test of democratic memory. And across much of the worldโ€”especially in the United Statesโ€”we failed that test. Not always through open betrayal. Often through fatigue, distraction, complacency, and the slow normalization of cruelty. We watched cities burn, civilians die, children disappear into the machinery of war, and gradually many people learned to look away.

At the same time, American politics revealed something even more unsettling. The nation that once helped defeat Nazism drifted toward open alignment with authoritarian power. During the second Trump era, what once would have been unthinkable became public fact: growing sympathy for Vladimir Putin, contempt for democratic alliances, attacks on institutions of law, escalating political intimidation, and the widening belief among oligarchic elites that wealth places them beyond moral accountability. The deeper revelations surrounding the Epstein world only sharpened that reality. It exposed not merely individual corruption but a culture of entitlementโ€”a ruling class convinced that power exempts it from the rules imposed on everyone else.

This is where the old political maps fail us.

For years many people imagined politics as a straight line from left to right. But the deeper truth is closer to the U-shaped theory. At the extremes, supposedly opposing forces often begin to resemble one another. Authoritarian left and authoritarian right can converge in their contempt for pluralism, their appetite for purity tests, their hatred of independent thought, and their willingness to use fear, spectacle, and scapegoats to mobilize the wounded and disoriented. What appears to be opposition can become mirror image.

And that convergence did not remain abstract. It entered kitchens, holidays, friendships, marriages, neighborhoods, and families. Across these years, people lost one another. Conversations became impossible. Shared reality fractured. Bonds built over decades cracked under the pressure of propaganda, algorithmic rage, humiliation, and permanent emotional mobilization. One of the deepest wounds of this period was not merely political division but the breaking of trust itself.

Yet history also moved in ways few predicted.

One of the most startling examples was Marjorie Taylor Greene. Once among Trumpโ€™s most fervent defenders, she emerged as one of his loudest antagonists. Whether motivated by conviction, political calculation, factional conflict, or self-preservation, the reversal itself matters. It reminds us that movements built on grievance, spectacle, and personal loyalty eventually begin consuming themselves.

Carl Jung called this enantiodromiaโ€”the tendency of things to turn into their opposite when driven too far in one direction. We are seeing that now. Excess breeds reversal. Fanatic certainty generates fracture. Systems built on lies eventually collapse under the weight of their own contradictions. But enantiodromia is not salvation. It is destabilization. Collapse can produce renewalโ€”or something far darker.

And then there is Elon Musk.

Before 2024, many still saw him as an eccentric futurist, a symbol of technological ambition. By 2026, something more dangerous had become visible: the fusion of enormous private wealth, ideological radicalization, platform control, political manipulation, and contempt for democratic restraint. History has shown repeatedly that when concentrated capital merges with authoritarian appetite, democracy becomes fragile.

So why are human beings so vulnerable to this?

Because human beings are not primarily rational creatures. We are myth-making, fear-driven, belonging-seeking creatures. Under pressure, many people do not move toward truth. They move toward identity, tribe, certainty, and the emotional relief of being told who is to blame. Collective ignorance serves power because it makes populations governable through confusion. It turns citizens into spectators, neighbors into enemies, and suffering into background noise.

That is why remembrance matters.

โ€œNever Againโ€ was never meant to be a slogan of historical self-congratulation. It was meant to be a discipline of attention.

Ukraine exposed what happens when that discipline fails.

The road remains crooked. But history is not finished. The future still depends on whether enough people recover the courage to see clearly, think independently, defend one another, and refuse the old seductions of fear, spectacle, obedience, and forgetting.


2023 Introduction | Ukraine: Never Again the World Once Said

For over 5,000 years, civilizations have repeatedly succumb to the desire to have more than they deserve and to dominate their neighbors. Instead of civilizing our species, civilizations have rather made us crazier and more violent than our most primitive ancestor.

Case in point: One year ago, Putin ruthlessly escalated his invasion of Ukraine. It is an invasion that began in 2014 when he ordered his Russian army to go into Ukraine and annex Crimea. With Putin’s dramatic intensification to bring the people of Ukraine back under the heel of his will, the illusion that all Putin wanted was Crimea was irrevocably broken into 10 million shiny shards of hate, ruthlessness, and horror. With his revulsive choice to bomb Ukraine into compliance, the idea that we live in a civilized world was also shattered. And, even more horrifying, we have not learned a thing about letting a monster like Putin have his way.

Ukraine | The Un-Civilizing Effect of Civilization on Man’s Psyche

Instead of civilizing man, civilization has provided man the means to destroy itself. Civilization is a tool that allowed groups of humans to channel this little ability our primitive ancestors figured out to focus consciousness into a stream of attention and think.

This ability combined with the invention of civilizations has allowed human beings to do unbelievable things and to create amazing things that never existed in the world before.

But there is a price for focusing consciousness into such narrow streams, and then creating powerful tools of destruction using our minds. A bloodthirsty ruthlessness has steadily been growing in the untended gardens called minds and men (and women) are increasingly getting lost in shallow, superficial thoughts that they confuse with reality. Engrossed in the jungle of thoughts, it is easy to see how people naturally gravitate towards thoughts of how to achieve more power, glory, and self-gratification.

Once lost inside the superficial jungle of one’s own mind, the snake of ruthless lies in wait. Once bitten, men and women will do anything to gain more power and status over others.

Some of Earth’s most hideous monsters are disguised as ordinary human beings. Expect for one crucial thing–they have become infatuated with themselves and their own self-importance and rather than using all their extraordinary gifts of consciousness for good and the betterment of all mankind, they use it to better themselves.

Individuals who possess an exaggerated sense of their own self-importance are cultivating a narcissistic mind. Individuals who possess a ridiculous need to have more than they need or deserve are growing a coveting heart. Such people believe their own lies (they are nurturing ignorance), and they will stop at nothing to get money, power, or whatever they desire (they are growing a malevolent soul full of venom, hate and malice).

Such people are extremely sick with a serious disorder called narcissism. But, civilization is sick too because we the people of Earth keep allowing such individuals to rise to the pinnacles of power within our systems of governance where they can terrorize others with  licentious abandonment.

Ukraine | In A World Ruled By Narcissists

Ukraine | The Same Beast | Music: Hey Putin! Go Fuck Yourself! | WiT | [1] Hey Putin! Go Fuck Yourself!    3:53

I wrote about the consequences for our collective failure to deal with narcissist who grab hold of power in a previous blog titled: Memory Wars: How Society Fails to Deal with Sin. The civilized world has a whole lot of sin to go around the world dozens and dozens and dozens of times. No modern civilization on this planet at this time is free of sin and the failure to deal with it.

Ukraine | American Slavery

Part of this failure to deal with our collective sin as a civilized species is that we, the people of Earth, are infatuated with narcissists. We worship them as heroes, great men, strong leaders… that is until they go too far… then we are shocked, shocked, that they turned out to be a monster!

Ukraine | There Are Many Types and Flavors of Narcissists… But All Ruthless Rulers Are Malignant Narcissists

9 of the Most Famous Narcissist in History

Alexander the Great -- exhibited all the characteristics of a raging narcissist. He believed that you were either with him or against him and he took his faithful soldiers on endless battles, much to their expense, solely for his own glory and personal conquests. He showed no emotion for the bloodshed of his generals or soldiers but believed in his grandiose visions.

Henry VIII -- was considered to be both charismatic and handsome, but he was also one of the cruelest and most egotistical leaders in our history. Famed for having six wives, two of which he had beheaded. He was known to show narcissistic traits such as a lack of empathy and being overly concerned with his appearance.

Napoleon Bonaparte -- The term โ€˜Napoleon Complexโ€™ comes from Napoleon Bonaparteโ€™s behaviour, which was to act in an overly aggressive manner to make up for feelings of inferiority and low self-esteem. Napoleon was considered a tyrant by everyone that knew him, who had grandiose thoughts and believed he was special. In fact, in his book entitled โ€˜Thoughtsโ€™, he wrote: โ€œIt was precisely that evening in Lodi that I came to believe in myself as an unusual person and became consumed with the ambition to do the great things that until then had been but a fantasy.โ€

Adolph Hitler -- is undoubtedly one of the cruellest leaders of the 20th century, led a campaign that saw the death of millions of innocent people. His actions also incited one of the largest wars in our generation, all due to his unwavering beliefs that he, and all other white Germans, were a superior race to everyone else.

His actions are typical of a self-obsessed narcissist in that he showed no empathy for the suffering of others, he spread his false propaganda about superiority in order to further his campaign and he demanded total acquiesce.

Narcissistic people are charming, charismatic, and magnetic people. They are people (women or men) who can read you (your soul) like normal people read books. They study and gather information about you sensing your vulnerabilities, dreams, fears, and rage.

Narcissists create glittery narratives about themselves using the intel they’ve gathered about you. They promise to provide you with the sun, the moon, and the stars, if only you sign on the dotted line giving them full access to your soul.

Using their glittery narratives, well-crafted to make you think and do exactly what they want you to do, they use the illusion of whatever it is you want to see in them to manipulate you. Once hooked, you become something they consume for entertainment or they use as a deviant character in their narcissistic nightmare.

Ruthless men and women rely on natural born instincts to gather information and calculate how to manipulate others for maximum devilment and self-gratification. We all have these instincts, narcissists are simply willing to use them to hunt people.

These are dangerous people. They have become hollowed out by their bottomless selfishness and self-absorption. And they can become masters at whipping up crowds into mindless, hostile dummies who are willing to murder, maime, and destroy anyone or anything that doesn’t walk, talk, and quack like them (in other words, they hunt down and kill anyone who does not align with the narcissists).

Ukraine | “I’m the Greatest Duck-Miester on the Planet! OFF WITH YOUR Head!” | Music: Barbra Streisand – Duck Sauce | Barbra Streisand (Original Mix)  

The Whiteness Myth

Hitler’s rise to power is a perfect example of what an unchecked malignant narcissists can do. Part of his rise to power included creating a compelling myth that aligned to the wishes, fears, and desires of the German people of his time. He manufactured a hostile myth of white power that epitomizes how hideous and heinous a malignant narcissists can charm a civilized people into becoming mindless monsters.

THROUGHLINE explores Hitler’s myth creation and how he used it to justify the most abominable genocide ever committed in modern times. It is a myth still resonating in the hearts and minds of people around the world to this very day. It is this myth Putin is drawing upon to justify his dramatic escalation of his invasion of Ukraine one year ago.

ARABLOUEI: On November 9, 1938, Nazi party paramilitary forces executed a coordinated, planned attack on Jewish businesses and synagogues across Germany and Austria. At least 91 people were killed, and thousands of Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Many historians believe that this event, Kristallnacht, began one of the most deadly phases of the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews and other people deemed racially inferior to pure Aryans by the Nazi party. That same year, Heinrich Himmler, one of Adolf Hitler's top commanders, sent a team of Nazi scientists on a mission.
PURANDARE: Himmler sets up a unit within the SS. The name of this unit is the Bureau of Ancestral Heritage. And what is its job? Its job is to find out the origins of the Aryan race. In 1938, he sends a team of five members of this unit to Tibet.
ABDELFATAH: Tibet. But why? The answer to that question makes this story even weirder.
PURANDARE: One of the theories is that there was this island called Atlantis somewhere between England and Portugal, and the Aryans lived there.
ABDELFATAH: Himmler thought the Aryans might be from the lost city of Atlantis.
PURANDARE: And one fine day, a divine thunderbolt hit the island. The island sunk. And the people of the island fled elsewhere. They swam to safety. And they looked for a more secure place to live in. These were the real Nordics, according to the racial theorists. And eventually, they moved to the Himalayas, specifically to Tibet. Why? Because, well, Atlantis had sunk, so you want to go to a place where you don't get a sinking feeling. One way of doing it is to get into the mountains, and the Himalayas are really tall mountains. And Tibet in particular is known as the roof of the world, so you'll be safest there.
ABDELFATAH: Himmler was searching for evidence of these Atlantis Aryans, and it was all part of a larger Nazi project to legitimize their racist views through, quote-unquote, "science."
PURANDARE: Himmler was hoping to come up with the exact definition of the Aryan race, the defining features that distinguish them from the rest of humanity, so that it would be so much more easier to identify those who are, allegedly, racially inferior. That was the whole idea. -- The Whiteness Myth, THROUGHLINE, 2/9/23

Ukraine | Another Insane Myth Used to Manipulated the Masses

This sounds about as insane as QAnon’s political myth story claiming former President Trump is facing down the shadowy cabals of Democratic pedophiles!

Ukraine | Signs referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory โ€” with a Q โ€”  appeared at rallies for President Donald J. Trump.Credit…Al Drago for The New York Times | What Is QAnon, the Viral Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory? — Kevin Roose, 9/3/21

Ukraine | It Could Not Be Clearer What We Are Dealing With… Again

Putin told his people one year ago that he needed to dramatically escalate his invasion of Ukraine to De-Nazify it. But who is really the monster in this equation?

Ukraine | “You Want It Darker? We Kill the Flame!” — Leonard Cohen | Leonard Cohen is telling us exactly what WE need to do in this moment of Ruthless Barbarity, the darkness Putin has plunged the world into once again, WE KILL THE FLAME... We (the Good People of Earth who honor life and respect freedom) WE kill the flame of EVIL Putin lit in 2014 and dramatically escalated last year! We don’t have a tomorrow to do this if we want OUR World Back.

Selfishness is not just something the super rich, celebrities, and ruthless rulers suffer from, all of us need to look in the mirror that we call the human soul and take a good long stare. As you look, ask yourself, are you being complicit in going along with a monster’s narrative and diabolical goals? And, if you are captivated and under the spell of a narcissist, it is your responsibility to wake up, now!

Ukraine | Putin is Not De-Nazifying Ukraine

Putin invaded Ukraine because Ukrainians were waking up. They were rooting out corruption and dysfunctional narratives imposed on them, first by Imperial Russia, then the Soviet Union, and now Putin’s deep desire to return to Imperial Russia, again.

Ukraine | How Ukraineโ€™s Orange Revolution shaped twenty-first century geopolitics
By Peter Dickinson | 11/20/20 | Atlantic Council

Ukrainians were doing the hard work of getting rid of corruption imposed on them by Russia that filled every system with deceit, duplicity, and double-dealings. Corrupt ion is how Putin rewards his Flying Monkeys, mainly oligarchs in Ukraine. All good narcissists cultivate Flying Monkeys to do their dirty work–be they oligarchs, presidents, or stinking rich capitalists.

Ukraine | “Look Mom! I’m A Monkey for Putin!” | Music: Wizard of the Hood (Collector’s Edition) | Violent J — Shiny Diamonds | Putin should be careful as Xi Jinping may very well turn Putin into his Flying Monkey!

This is why Ukraine was invaded. This and this alone. They were doing the hard work of flushing Putin and his shit hole corruption down the toilet bowel of history.

And we should do the same, right here in the Good Old USA. Yet, so many Americans seem intoxicated with authoritarianism and all the corruption that goes with it. These Americans seem to hero worship Putin and all the power and authority he has accumulated since ascending to the highest throne in his fatherland or motherland of Russia.

These Americans make distributing rumblings about how the United States should NOT continue to support Ukraine in its fight defend itself from a monster, which is Putin. At first, I thought line of thinking was just coming from Tucker Carlson, a nighttime host on Fox Entertainment and well-trained Russian Stooge, along with some other entertainment specialists such as Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Ukraine | Inside the Mind of Marjorie Taylor Green | Music: Big Boys (Speed Up) by SZA and other DJ Remasters #Marjorie#TaylorGreen #TheScream #spacylady

Apparently, they all feel sorry for Putin’s shit ass army and are trying to help him regain the upper hand as Supreme Demon on the planet. I suppose they hope if they rub his back, he’ll rub their back when the time comes.

But his US stooges are failing him just like his army is failing. So instead of fighting a real war, Putin simply kills innocent civilians, kidnaps children (6,000) and sends them to Russian indoctrination camps, and arrests its own citizens who dares to speak out against his war.

But then one of my friends shocked me with this same shit ass idea!

He is a flaming ass liberal… who are supposed to be against anything the Putin USA entertainment team is rooting for!

What the hell is going on?!!” I thought to myself.

Then, I found a possible explanation in this article: Why Americaโ€™s Far Right and Far Left Have Aligned Against Helping Ukraine

It discusses the horseshoe theory of politics proposed by French philosopher  Jean-Pierre Faye.

He believed that the political ideological spectrumโ€”traditionally construed as a linear progression from some form of socialism or democratic collectivism through a bourgeois-liberal center and on to some form of totalitarianism or fascismโ€”was not a straight line between ever-more-distant political positions but rather something like a horseshoe, with the extremes bending almost magnetically into conjunction with each other.
Based on his observation of the alignment of fascist and communist parties in early 1930s German domestic politics and then on the Nazi-Soviet alignment in the international sphere, perhaps best embodied by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, he believed that the political extremes have much more in common than a traditional interpretation of the political spectrum might suggest.

But low and behold, here you see it happening right here in the US, right now, over the war in Ukraine. There is a bizarre and truly hideous union happening between the Far Right (including Tucker Carlson, Rep. Marjorie T. Greene, Sen. Josh Hawley and other MAGA supporting Republicans) and Far Left (including Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and company).

And oh yeah…arrogant, ignorant rich guys are joining in too. You know that man… who owns too many companies… what’s his name again? He owns Tesla… SolarCity… SpaceX (which owns Starlink)… Neuralink (yes, brain chips to combat bad AIs)… The Boring Company (yeah, it’s pretty boring, they actually drill tunnels)… Wyoming Steel… and OH YEAH, Twitter.

The arrogant asshole who just cut Starlink off from Ukrainians, limiting their ability to navigate drones and make targeted strikes on the ruthless, aggression of Russia’s Imperial ambitions. He said he did it to prevent WWI, as if he ever could!

This man is Elon Musk-Rat, of course:

Ukraine | “My little good boy” Putin says to Elon | Music: Good Boy by GD X TAEYANG

Ukraine | Strange Bedfellows Align

I found this article disturbing but helpful in understanding something I had not been aware of until my “friend” enlightened me.

Why Americaโ€™s Far Right and Far Left Have Aligned Against Helping Ukraine– The discourse surrounding Russiaโ€™s war on Ukraine has created strange bedfellows was published on July 4, 2002 and written by By Jan Dutkiewicz, a policy fellow at the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law and Policy Program at Harvard Law School, and  Dominik Stecuล‚a, an assistant professor of political science at Colorado State University.

Since Russia attacked Ukraine, unprovoked, on Feb. 24, the discourse surrounding the war that has emerged in the United States has created strange bedfellows. Although the majority of the American public, led by U.S. President Joe Biden, have thrown their support behind Ukraine, many on the left and right alike have rushed to defend Russian President Vladimir Putinโ€™s regime or, at the very least, have urged the United States not to intervene in Ukraineโ€™s defense.
Tucker Carlson, the face of Fox News and host of the most popular show on cable news in the United States, has been spouting pro-Kremlin talking points for months (and is frequently rebroadcasted on Russian state television). Other right-wing figures regularly spew out anti-Ukrainian disinformation and rail against sending heavy weapons to the country.
Meanwhile, the luminary of the American intellectual left, Noam Chomsky, has invoked former U.S. President Donald Trump as a model of level-headed geopolitical statesmanship for his opposition to arming Ukraine. Left-wing sourcesโ€”such as JacobinNew Left Review, and Democracy Now!โ€”have hewed to a party line that blames NATO expansion for Russiaโ€™s invasion and opposes military aid to Ukraine.
Online, armies of left- and right-wing accounts find fault with Ukraineโ€™s politics, policies, and president. In Congress, seven of the most fervent conservative Trump supporters voted alongside progressive champions Reps. Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush against banning Russian fossil fuels; even more surprisingly, Omar and Bush are joined by so-called squad members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib as well as the far-right fringe of the Republican Party in opposing the U.S. government seizing Russian oligarchsโ€™ assets.
All of these developments highlight a bizarre alliance between the two ends of the political spectrum. The question is: Why?

Ukraine | Letter to A Misguided Friend

I sent this article with a note to my “friend”. This is what I said to him.

I have found the holes in your wish-thought that Ukraine should stop fighting and ceded territory to Russia.  
This article provides some insight into part of your thinking problem.  I see your favorite philosopher and economist on the far Left (Noam) is in on this wish-thought.  
Sadly, he is falling victim to the very thing he so eloquently and valiantly fights against using his brilliant mind and words.
Words are weapons my dear friend. War is seldom fought solely with guns and bullets and bombs. War begins first inside the hearts and minds of men who want things to run in a certain way. The more you want things to run in a certain way, the more you seek explanations for why the world isn't working out that way.
Oddly, Trump's MAGA Republicans and Bernie's Radical Communist Liberals (I say this tongue-in-cheek) are aligning on the same side about what should be done (or rather not done) with Ukraine. All of it, and I mean man's ability to think itself, is a flimsy outline of reality. The more you grasp at it the more reality slips between the fingers of your mind.
This article explains why your thought-wish about what Ukraine should do is wrong. 
I understand your feelings. These are not wrong.  Feelings tell us when something is off kilter, when something is out of alignment, when something is dangerous! 
I wish there was no war in the world too.  
But wishing and seeing what is really happening to real people in real time are two completely different things. No amount of wishful ideas that have not dived nearly deep enough inside the human psyche can accurately articulate reality or make a thought-wish
Reviving a Yalta Conference mindset, but from the left, these ostensible progressives refuse Ukrainians agency, oppose U.S. armed involvement, and yet believe that the United States has the power and right to parcel out Ukrainian land in exchange for peace in Ukraine. In the heart of this perverse leftist anti-imperialism lies the un-imperial impulse to wield imperial power but only, ostensibly, in the name of peaceโ€”no matter the will of the locals. -- Why Americaโ€™s Far Right and Far Left Have Aligned Against Helping Ukraine; The discourse surrounding Russiaโ€™s war on Ukraine has created strange bedfellows.

Ukraine | Righteous Rage

Rather than act like a grown up and have a discussion with me, this “friend” taunted and teased me about his opinions about Ukraine knowing how worked up I would get whenever he brought it up or the subject came up. He thought it was fun.

This “friend” is no longer my friend. I have decided he is a narcissists himself. In a nutshell, I exploded. In searching to understand myself, I encountered this meme about INFJs and Anger. I am an INFJ and this is exactly what happened, and for damn good reason.

From Quora INFJ Group
Heโ€™s a baby man who made the mistake of telling me (after coming to crash at our house without telling us far in advance that he needed to do this) that he did not support the US continuing to help Ukraine and wanted US to make Russia and Ukraine settle, being perfectly fine with letting Russia take territory and anything else Putin wants to take.
I could go on and list all the babyish qualities he clings to as a 70 year old man, but then I would fall ever closer into the category of a very angry (indeed raging) INFJ.
Letโ€™s just say I tolerated him for 9 days and nights and my husbandโ€™s running away from the responsibilities taking care of this Baby Man under the auspices of helping our friends who are Ukrainian refugees. Yes, I feel very deeply the injustice of what Russia is inflicting on Ukraine. And, I feel this is not a time for the world to blink and look away.
We are right now (the entire world) staring down the glut of monster. We have seen this monster beforeโ€ฆ many timesโ€ฆStalin, Lenin, Hitlerโ€ฆ it goes back thousands and thousands of years.
Ukraine | Putin (and all Ruthless Rulers before him) embody the Beast of Greed, Selfishness, & Fascism... We feed the beast with our Time & Attention… The Beast is Driving Us All to the End of the World… We all know this! If we choose to be UNCONSCIOUS about this REALITY, then we feel it as FEAR, ANXIETY, DREAD. The only people HAPPY about the Direction Dictatorial Rulers are taking the WORLD are Narcissists… the same EVIL Creatures that Putin IS!
And yet, here we are again, and there are some of us (many of us) on this precious planet pretending itโ€™s not there and letโ€™s just get back to being play boys and business as usualโ€ฆ
This is how we lose the planetโ€ฆ because this is the same attitude preventing global action on climate change.
And, then we little, stupid INFJs have to make such a big deal about these injusticesโ€ฆ thatโ€™s what my friend didโ€ฆ then I exploded. I scared myself!

All personalities (all people who have not been hollowed out by narcissism or turned into Flying Monkeys for a narcissists) are capable or Righteous Rage. If we can’t tap into it now, God help us all.

Ukraine | What Kind of World Do You Want to Live In?

So, I got rid of my “friend”. I’m not sure I can put Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are Rashida Tlaib into the narcissists box as my baby friend is, but the United States of America can surely walk and chew gum at the same time.

I think these individuals are falling victim to the narcissists’ game. Narcissists want us to believe there isn’t enough to go around.

They want us to think there isn’t enough money to deal with balancing the national budget and to help Ukraine fight the war. They want us to believe there isn’t enough money to feed all the hungry people in the US and help Ukraine fight the war. They want us to fear there isn’t enough money to fight racism and gun violence in the US and help Ukraine fight the war.

It does seem this way because every time Mitch McConnells or that guy who is Speaker of the House gets control of their body of congress, they are busy making policies and crafting legislations designed to stuff more money into their own pockets and the pockets of the rich friends (aka — Flying Monkeys).

Not having enough money is exactly what narcissists who are in power want you to think!

If you think this, they have won!

There is plenty of money to stop all wars and fed the entire world, if we wanted to do such a thing. We just need to dig is out of the claws of narcissistic billionaire like Elon Musk and Rage Entertainers such as Trump, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, and Steve Bannon.

Ukraine | The Narcissists Game

Narcissists all over the world play this stupid game. They play it with people’s lives. Lives and people are merely things to be used to get whatever the narcissist wants. And if the narcissist doesn’t get it, they go into rage mode.

That is really all they are good at doing… Raging like Toddlers or little ducks whenever they don’t get what they want.

What Is Narcissistic Rage?
Bouts of rage when not given the attention they feel deserve.
Screaming and yelling.
Angry or explosive outbursts.
Intense anger.
Sudden fits of anger.
Becoming verbally or physically aggressive.
Inability to control the rage.
Intentionally trying to inflict pain (emotional or physical) on others.

Do you want a toddler running your house?

We have to stop standing around wringing our hands, twiddling our thumbs, and wondering what to do whenever we hit global inflection point such as Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, climate change. We know what needs to be done.

We need to do it!

Black Panther Sirens + [Slowed + Reverb] + (Best Part Loop)

Rather than succumbing to the mesmerizing, hypnotic Call of the Sirens inside your mind–fear, confusion, trepidation–the things narcissists purposefully trigger with their double-speak and mythic narratives. It is all part of the illusion to fool you into complacency and into playing the narcissists game.

We all hear their songs: “There isn’t enough money. We’re going to start WWIII. This isn’t our war! It’s not our concern. Go away people in need.”

But the best way to do away with them, is to turn around and a face them straight in the eye. Under the scrutiny of a unified soul, heart, and mind, such hypnotic songs will fall silent and the hard work of routing out corruption can continue, everywhere, all at once!

Perhaps we are at the end of the story of how civilizations function in the world, but perhaps, this is just where we are supposed to be, so we can get down to writing a better story of Earth.

Ukraine | “At the End of the World on the Very Last Day| Music: At the End โ€” A mix for the end of the world (part. 1) The National Parks | Final Archetypal Animation for The Half-Finished Heaven by Tomas Transtrรถme, which was my Winter Solstice blog for December 21, 2021

This poem is actually a very fitting poem for this blog and subject matter dealt with throughout. We do need the world to end as we know it now. We need it to end, so we (the Good People of Earth) can starting working on and bring in a new story of Earth with new characters who are not hollowed out by narcissism, greed, and half-baked plans. There are after all, far more good people of Earth than evil people. That’s another game the narcissists play on us… they pretend there are more of them and they are bigger and badder than the rest of us… but that is just another big fat lie. They are scaredy cats. They are far more scared of us than we are of them. Ukraine is showing us that Good People of Earth! Listen andLearn and Live a Better, More Peaceful Life! After getting rid of the Monsters — there is no peace while they stomp all over our beautiful planet!
Ukraine | These Are the Creeps Who Want the US to stop helping Ukraine rid the World of a Monster.
They are Narcissists, just like the Putin Monster.

These are just a few of the Greedy, Dumb, and Selfish Fools, a bunch of shallow narcissists, who want the US to let Putin crush Ukraine. They want theWORLD to live in eternal darkness, just like Putin wants. They need darkness to maneuver and manipulate people. They need to maneuver and manipulate so they can have more than anyone else, more than they deserve. They steal from the helpless, the weak, the sick, the poor so they can have MORE, MORE, MORE of everything in the World, which of course inside their tiny selfish minds, was made for them to devour!

But they are a very small minority of the world, consisting ofless than 5% of the entire population of Earth. This is what my friend from Ukraine told me (about these fools who are a very small minority), and I believe her. Indeed, I feel the truth in what she says. She is INFJ just like me.

The U Shaped Theory explained above is really our Super Polarized World right now. The Creeps on Either End of the Sphere all want the same thing (that is why they are aligning on the issue of Ukraine). They want deep down for the World to Walk, Talk, and Quack like they do. In short, they want the World to Look the Way They Want it to… which is the very particular way they have figured it ought to look and act (due to their particular brilliance) and calculated it should be arranged (based on their superior values). What they are failing to see is that they are acting like a dictator who is dictating to others how the World should be.

Now, there are latitudes to Polarization, so many people with passionate causes fall in varying degrees closer and closer to the middle, which is where most of the World lives… the Middle Way, a very ancient Taoist idea that we should all reacquaint ourselves with NOW. To live in the Middle, a person must not only think, but feel. Not only understand outer reality, but one’s inner reality. A person who lives in the Middle must be willing and able to Trust, Cooperate, Listen, Empathize, Share. This is how MOST People live, even today… BUT the Narcissists would have us believe otherwise, and they do incredible things (like invade other countries) to get us to believe the world is a Cruel, Dangerous, Hideous place…. but it is only that way because they are making it so!

Note about Mitch McConnell: He does not promote the idea that US should stop helping Ukraine. He has publicly said to his Republican Entertainment Specialists that they should wake up. But he does belong in the Polarized South because he has not spoken up against thelies, deceits, double-talk, and efforts of Trump and his Flying Monkeys to overthrow the 2020 election. YES, Trump is a Flying Monkey of Putin, and Flying Monkeys tend to be Narcissists or people who are well on their way to becoming Narcissists. Most little narcissists have their own little group of monkeys who entertain and help them bring about their EVIL plans.

The Beast of Fascism is RIGHT here in America with 30% of US population itching for the next Civil War… stupid, ignorant fools that they are convinced by the lies and deceptions of creatures like Trump, Green, Holly, Carlson, and many others!

Alan Watts said often (and it is an ancient saying): “The Path to HELL is Paved by the Stones of Good Intentions… All the Do Gooders in the World trying to make the world they way they want it to be… never able to deal with it the way it really is.”

If you missed my blog last year, you can read Ukraine Letters, here.

https://www.sapience2112.com/ukraine-letters-to-the-world-of-free-men-and-women

Comment from a friend about this blog:

What do we do when we see injustice, cruelty, inhumanity? What emotion would compel us to stand up and fight for what is right? What if not righteous anger?

My response:

You are absolutely RIGHT!
And I realized that Leonard Cohen in the last album he recorded before his death told us exactly how to use Righteous Anger in moments like these.
The entire world learned back in 1945 what needs to be done in moments like these.
Sadly, too many people have forgotten the lessons learned by our fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers (many of whom did not survive these ancient times; I say ancient tongue and cheek, given the speed at which our technology propels and forces most of us to live our lives in the world today).
Ukraine is showing us (the Free World) what to do if we want to stay free.
WE KILL THE FLAME... this is what Cohen sings in his song You Want It Darker...
I use this song in one of the Archetypal Animations shared above. The one with Putin sitting on a train staring at his reflection, which is Hitler. (Sorry whoever owns Cohen's collection. I see the copyright claim on YouTube, but I did use a free sample available on Spotify.  Supposedly, these samples are made available to market Cohen's legendary work?!)
Putin lite the Flame of Evil. Do you know what Evil is?
Evil is Live spelled backwards. It is anti-Live. He is a force that destroys the environment necessary to support life... that is evil. Nature can be evil, consider the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost by a destructive event of nature, which destroyed the conditions necessary for life.
Now days, we don't hold Nature responsible for Her actions... death is a natural part of life and when we are born into the world, there is no guarantees we will live a long life. Ever since we became conscious as a species, we have known this and it terrifies us.
However, when a person (who knows what is necessary to sustain life) takes away the environment and self-agency every living being needs to survive... now, we get to a conscious choice that has been made. We have called such choices and such actions EVIL for as long as man has been civilized.
Putin is consciously raining death, terror, and destruction daily on the beautiful people of Ukraine. He wants the World to Be a Darker Place. That's what Creatures like him need to feel powerful and in control.
So WE KILL THE FLAME of Evil, which is what he is manifesting in our world right now.  
To KILL a MONSTER, you need a MONSTER. Our version of MONSTERS in our Modern World is technology... yes, it is very scary... yes, Putin is such a man who could push the button... but WE must stare him down and match him punch for punch with EVIL... might I say Righteous Evil?!!
All this is pouring into the Book I write (been writing for too many years, as you well know)... it is too much to explain in a comment on FaceBook. I know I am coming across as scary right now. I do apologize, but I've been through my own Hell and Survived it. I am trying now to communicate and help others survive Hell when it comes to visit... and it is coming... if Putin doesn't get us... Climate Change surely well.

Ukraine | Feature Archetypal Animation

Fantasy Planet Moon Light Magic Woman Hand | KELLEPICS | Stefan Keller  โ€ข  Deutschland / Germany  โ€ข  Member since March 22, 2017  โ€ข  #282

Silhouettes Man Psychology Shine Circles | geralt | Gerd Altmann  โ€ข  Freiburg/Deutschland  โ€ข  Member since Sept. 15, 2012  โ€ข  #30

Clock Pocket Watch Pendulum Commute Swing | geralt | Gerd Altmann  โ€ข  Freiburg/Deutschland  โ€ข  Member since Sept. 15, 2012  โ€ข  #30

Hand Flag Symbol Ukraine Kiev Ukrainian Kyiv | David_Peterson | David Peterson  โ€ข  Age 40  โ€ข  Canberra/ACT  โ€ข  Member since March 6, 2017

Putin and Missle — See blog April 2022

The End Of The World Walk On Water Young Woman Green | xusenru | Khusen Rustamov  โ€ข  Age 29  โ€ข  Samarkand/Uzbekistan  โ€ข  Member since Dec. 30, 2015

Music: End Of The World Ushuaia & The Wanderlust Orchestra [1] Prologue    0:36

Ducktators & Other Quacks of History

Image From:

Phantom Duck

Alexander the Greatโ€ฆpainted by Phantom Duck

Image From: Caesar Rubber Duck | Amsterdam Duck Store

Image From: Henry VIII rubber duck | Royal Armouries

Image From: Duck Napoleon — Daria Kolosova, Russia, 2022 | Singulart

Image From: Coming soon: The Adolf-Hitler Rubber Duck | Duck Planet

Image From:

Shenziholic's avatar

Adolf Hitler as a Duck — Published: Feb 27, 2007 by Shenziholic

Image From: Lenin Duck by

Mayana Nasybullova

Artist Mayana Nasybullova

Image From:

Sicksikmans's avatar

Joseph Stalin Duck — Published: Dec 29, 2013 by Sicksikmans

Image From:

TochFire79's avatar

Vladimir Putin the Duck Rider | Published: Mar 23, 2015 by TochFire79

Image From: Crying Fowl: Russia Mocked In Memes After Bulldozing Geese — August 17, 2015 14:42 GMTBy Anna Shamanska

Image From: President Xi pays visit to Inner Mongolia — China Daily

Music: Barbra Streisand – Duck Sauce | Barbra Streisand (Original Mix)   

Who Is The Monster

Image From: OPINION: Did we tolerate Hitler? How long will we tolerate Putin? | Kyiv Post

Thatโ€™s a funeral in the mirror, And itโ€™s stopping at your faceThatโ€™s right, itโ€™s come to thisYes, itโ€™s come to this, And wasnโ€™t it a long way down?” — These are the words of an early Leonard Cohen song aptly

Image From: Wagner head warns it could take two years to achieve Moscowโ€™s objectives โ€“ as it happened The Guardian

Image From: Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 360 of the invasionThe Guardian

Image From: How Washington Can End the War — The United States is the only credible peacemaker capable of stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine. — Guy Sorman November 15, 2022 — CJ

Image From: In pictures: Six months of war in Ukraine | Reuters | The body of a soldier, without insignia, who the Ukrainian military claim is a Russian army serviceman killed in fighting, lies on a road outside the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, February 24.

Image From: What caused the war in Ukraine? 5 Oct 2022 | Joseph S. Nye | The Strategist

Image From: In pictures: Six months of war in Ukraine | Reuters | A woman fleeing the Russian invasion hugs a child at a temporary camp in Przemysl, Poland, February 28. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Image From: In pictures: Six months of war in Ukraine | Reuters | A refugee child fleeing from Ukraine gestures when waiting for transport at Nyugati station, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Budapest, Hungary, February 28, 2022. REUTERS/Marton Monus TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Image From: In pictures: Six months of war in Ukraine | Reuters | A civilian trains to throw Molotov cocktails to defend the city, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, March 1.  REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi

Image From: In pictures: Six months of war in Ukraine | Reuters | An aerial view shows a residential building destroyed by shelling in the settlement of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region, March 3. REUTERS/Maksim Levin

Image From: Can the Ukraine war now end only with Russiaโ€™s defeat? | The New Statesman

We should not assume that a quick conclusion based on mutual concessions is the best way to deal with an ongoing war.

By Lawrence Freedman

Image From: Russia-Ukraine War: What to know on Russia’s war in Ukraine — The Mainichi | A Ukrainian serviceman holds a baby crossing the Irpin river on an improvised path under a bridge that was destroyed by a Russian airstrike, while assisting people fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Music: Album: You Want It Darker Leonard CohenYou Want It Darker   

Putin’s Flying Monkeys

Image From: Coronavirus: Russia’s Putin gets vaccine but without cameras — Published: 23 March 2021 | BBC News

Image From: WILL WE EVER RETURN TO NORMAL AFTER TRUMP? | Vanity Fair

There is plenty of ugly fight left in Donald Trumpโ€™s presidency, which has already warped American culture. But itโ€™s not too soon to contemplate a post-Trump challenge: tyrant-proofing the country, in case the next one isnโ€™t such a clown.

Image From: โ€œTrump In The Wildโ€ Is The Nature Documentary We All Need | Sammiches & Psych Meds

The overgrown orange toddler has continued his mission to continually show his ass and embarrass America at this yearโ€™s NATO summit in Brussels. The news cycle has been a nonstop shit-storm of Trumpโ€™s bad behavior abroad.

Image From: Puppet Putin GIF | Tenor

Image From: Putin And Mini Trump GIF | Tenor

Image From: Putin taking his child out for a stroll… | Occupy Demorats

Image From: Total Control Xi Jinping | Cartoon Movement

Mr Xi has total control over China’s Communist Party, the state, and the Chinese military and dictates policy for the economy, development and foreign affairs.

Music: Wizard of the Hood (Collector’s Edition) | Violent J — Shiny Diamonds

Elon Musk Archetypal Animation

Image From: Elon Musk ‘donated’ Starlink terminals to Ukraine. U.S. taxpayers paid SpaceX millions for it. — SpaceX previously claimed the U.S. didn’t give them any money to send Starlink to Ukraine. (4/8/22) — Mashables

Elon Musk is a “Lair, lair… pants on fire!

Image From: Elon Musk: Starlink internet service now active in Ukraine (2/26/22) — KTLA5

The arrogant nerd can’t even make it a year.

Image From: Muskโ€™s Starlink isnโ€™t only option for Ukraine, Pentagon says — The Japan Times

Image From: Elon Muskโ€™s SpaceX says it can no longer fund Starlink internet in Ukraine — Firm reportedly asks US government to pick up bill as relationship between Musk and Kyiv breaks down (10/14/22) — The Guardian

Image From: Male human anus close-up — WikiMedia \ Reference is to: “Everyone has opinions just like they have assholes.”

Image From: North Korea fires ballistic missile with warning to US, South Korea, JapanStars & Stripes

Image From: Musk Says SpaceX Will Keep Funding Starlink for Ukraine (10/16/22) — VOA

Lair, lair… pants on fire!

Image From: Twitter Misinformation Efforts In Danger with Musk Takeover New Scientist

Image From: Putin’s threat on nuclear capabilities presents challenges (2/27/22) — Boston Globe

Image From: In the 2020 Netflix movie, “The Midnight Sky”, what could be the cataclysmic event that decimates most of the Earth? — Bad Bart 2 on Reddit


Music: GOOD BOY GD X TAEYANG — GOOD BOY    4:05